"A LaZer?"
Patrick Smith

Discussing the Robot
New to FIRST Robotics or Rex? Wondering what it's all about?

We are Rex 1727, a fourth year team competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Each year over 40,000 high school students team up with college and professional mentors to design, build, and program robots to compete in the latest FIRST Robotics Challenge. To find out more about FIRST’s goals and see what the latest game consists of, check out the FIRST section above. To find out more about Rex’s history check out the Rex section above.

Hide this section for future visits



Thank you

It is our sad job to inform you that after 10 long years of involvement with FIRST Robotics, REX's head mentor, and founder, Mr. Brian Bruneau, has made the decision to step down. He will still work with Dulaney's VEX teams, however is not involved with FRC anymore. We would like to thank him for everything he has done for the team in the past 6 years, all the time he has dedicated to us, and teaching during Build Season. He has changed many of our lives for the better by pulling us into REX, and we all are grateful. We wish him the best, and may he know that there is always a spot open for him, should he ever wish to come back.

Thank you so much, Mr. Bruneau,

From REX 1727, and all your students




Annual Spaghetti Fundraiser Dinner 2011
Thursday January 13, 2011 banners were strung from the ceiling while REX held one of its biggest fundraisers of the year: Spaghetti Dinner. Over a hundred were in attendence for the food and displays. Last year’s robot and this year’s kit bot were both there and showing off for the diners. Two of the VEX robots that are qualified for the World championship were strutting their stuff on a VEX field. Between set-up, running the displays, waiting tables and clean-up, it was a long and tiring, but fun night for the club, but a great end to the first week of build season.


Online Findraising

Hey, everyone! we are currently having an online fundraiser, selling discounted magazine subscriptions, goodies, and discounted restaurant gift cards. Please check it out, and help support us, if anything catches your eye. Up to 40% on each item goes towards our team

Thank you!




AAI Classic Article

"I'm going to Disney world ... with my robot." No, these words did not come from tech-savvy football professionals after winning the Super Bowl. They came from high school students who have won the AAI Classic, a robotics competition at the Maryland State Fairgrounds sponsored by robotics manufacturer and promoter Vex.

Rex was featured in a wonderful article about the AAI Classic, written by Raffi Wartanian. If you would like to read more, Click Here




Rex Hobnobs at the Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC
The Science and Engineering Festival on the mall in Washington, DC was huge with hundreds of different organizations represented, including FIRST robotics. During the afternoon of Saturday, October 23rd, 2010, the FIRST tent saw Mr. Bruneau, Matt Verne, Katherine Chen and Amy Shapiro sharing information about FIRST robotics with all interested visitors. Rex the robot, feeling very sociable, hung multiple times and played friendly games of catch with interested youngsters. All in all, it was satisfactory day spreading the word about the excitement of FIRST robotics. Special thanks flies out to Mrs. Chen for driving down and back.


California Girl Becomes a Baltimore “Hon”
I was once a member of FIRST team 2489, the Insomniacs, in Fremont, California. Near the end of my first year, I learned that my mom had gotten a new job in Maryland, the opposite side of the country. I was devastated, and in denial about being uprooted from the state in which I had lived practically all my life, but I soon accepted the move with resignation and began searching for a new high school. I required my new school to have a robotics team, so I used the School Locator on the FIRST website to search for FRC teams in Maryland. The team that caught my eye was 1727 REX. I found the website very informative, and was soon excited about being a possible new member, whereas most other teams I checked hardly had anything on their websites, or had no website at all. Dulaney high school’s academics looked to be excellent, and as an added bonus the school was very close to my mom’s new work. So it was that near the end of the 2009-2010 school year, Mr. Bruneau received an email out of the blue from some girl in California who wanted to join a team on the opposite coast of the US. By: Julia Kudryashev


Triumph for VEX Teams at the DC Knights Round-up Qualifiers
Saturday, October 9th, 2010 was a spectacular day for the Rex Vex teams in Pennsylvania. All three teams made it to the semifinals and Ahab was in the first seated alliance. This qualified Ahab for the World Championship in Orlando in April; in addition, it won the design award and was the only robot able to hang at the competition. Tommy's programmer was a hair away from winning the programmer award. And last, but not least, Drewvention had a spectacular defensive play in the semifinals. All the robots had their moment of glory, and it was definitely worth the early wake-up call.


Memoirs of a Newbie
This past summer the Dulaney Robotics Club held a two week long summer build session during which, we worked on building a new robot and repairing the old one. This was a good chance for new members and old members alike to learn something new and improve on their existing knowledge. I know for me, as a new member joining at the end of my junior year, i was still getting to know the club. When i first joined, someone showed me the old robot and explained what each part was and what it did; by the time they had finished, i still had no idea what everything was. After summer build, all of this changed. When summer build started, i became an an apprentice of sorts to to one of the more experienced members; i followed him around and watched what he did as he explained how to do it. I learned how to use all of the tools, most of which i had never seen in my previous engineering class. During the two weeks of summer build, we completed a whole new robot which consisted mostly of pneumatic devices. I was on the team which worked on constructing the kicker device and even though my machining skills were not amazing, I was still able to actively contribute my ideas and opinions while practicing and learning new skills. I also got a chance to help with wiring the robot; it was at this point that I started to realize what all the parts were and how they work. I became much more attached to the robot after helping construct it compared to just seeing a completed one. When registering for Battle O' Baltimore, we already had another robot, so we were prompted to give the second robot a name. We decided to name it XER 7271, REX 1727 backwards. When we first arrived at the competition, the robot still needed a lot of work, like programming and a few mechanical issues that still needed to be worked out. With this said, by the end of the day the robot was drivable and did better than anyone had ever expected. Although it didn't quite match up to the competition, building the robot was still success. Many people learned more about robotics and we all got some practice for the actual build season coming up in January 2011. By Andrew Brzuchalski


Rex on Vex
On August 6, 2010, working with Baltimore City Public School System REX ran a VEX competition for city middle school teams. Arriving early the day before to set up numerous pits, fields and electronics, REX paid attention to even the smallest of details such as making sure the banners were hung evenly. The day of, REX members were everywhere, running matches, commentating, and queuing among many other tasks. At the end of the day, after the awards ceremony, we broke everything down, packed it up and brought it back to Dulaney high school to get ready for August 7 which was… Battle of Baltimore!


First Display of the Summer
On June 19th, 5 members of the Rex went to downtown Baltimore to present their robot at the African American Heritage Festival. With us, we brought our robot and did demonstrations from noon till 3:30 for everyone. On several accounts, we had some curious spectators take part in our demonstrations. We were able to attract a good audience as well as talk to many about FIRST robotics and who we are.




Older Posts








The FIRST logo is a registered trademark of the Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)
Javascript is required for this website to function properly.